green

Cell Phone Manners and Things I Hate would probably good discussion threads.... I also hate people who talk in movie theatres.

The former GF is lucky. She doesn't have K-fed anymore but she probably does have big cash payments coming in thanx to him hooking up with Spears. LOL

Your holiday sounds wonderful, Wheezy, and I am envious!!! I've got a crazy idea about your current problem. Both my friend who is a teacher and my brother who is a doctor say that they gain weight when they are working even though they eat the same. They claim that this is caused by stress. My teacher friend says that stress is very fattening! Are you feeling any stress? Could this be interfering with the band? Stress can also cause hairloss. This same friend of mine lost a bunch of hers while she was going through a stressful episode. Do get in touch with the TLBC about lack of weight loss.

Hurrah for Steve! Thumbs down for Spears!

*loud snickers from green*

God or nature made Adam and Eve but that same power also made Steve.

Sometimes a sausage is just a sausage but I do prefer a man with small buns.:biggrin1:

Theft, like prostitution, will always be with us. Theft happens at all levels of society. There are the little guys who practise welfare fraud or steal from your local supermarket, practices which the rest of us find abhorent, and there are the big fish, such as those behind Enron. Corruption on this scale may harm the middle class as much for we see people's savings' plans suddenly seriously compromised or even wiped out. This may make a difference when it comes to retirement or to sending a child or two off to university. The United States has always, unlike Europe, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand, avoided any policies that have smacked of socialism. By doing so, it may be argued that you have left the middle class in a vulnerable position. The rich are rich and will always be unaffected by the dysfunctional behaviour of the poor. They will not have their homes broken into, nor will they be mugged. Neither will the collapse of an Enron stop them from sending their kids to the right schools and, well, interfere with the quality of their lives. It strikes me that it is the middle class, and it is the middle class that is the backbone of any modern nation, is occupying a precarious position. You are one serious disease away from financial stress, and if that doesn't get you, another Enron could, and you have to deal with the violence of disenfranchised, under-educated, drug-addled poor people who might car-jack you or break into your houses.

Re Green the sausage: all that I can say about that is thank God that October and Oktoberfest are over. I have had Germans salivatin' over me ever since I started wearing these jeans! They're chasing me with their giant buns! Ooh....:kiss2:

You raise an interesting set of questions in this post, ones that would merit a lengthy thread of their own. How far should the state go? Should the state become a "nanny state" by enacting laws for our protection? There was the time of Prohibition when alcohol was banned because it was deemed bad for us. Now we see laws which infringe upon the rights of smokers. Should there be anti-obesity laws as well, and if so, what kind? Should fast food restaurants be banned. Should we have the right to sue them? Should the obese individual be required to pay for his or her own health costs? For that matter there is the tricky matter of medical technology outstripping itself. Let me explain. Though it is now possible to save extremely premature infants, the chances are high that these poor kids will have ongoing developmental problems; they are more likely to have medical problems throughout their lives. This means that from their birth on they will be a greater charge on the health system, whether it is private or not. How do you feel about your insurance premiums going up when it concerns the care of one of these infants? Or should the state adopt a hands-off approach? Where does one person's right end and the next person's right begin? I think that this is an interesting question.

Congratulations on the weight loss, Yoda, and don't eat that caribou (or the fudge)!!!

I can do chicken and I can do bread. I chew, chew, chew it of course. I don't think I have enough restriction though....

I am really enjoying this thread. I am learning a lot about the American political system. It appears that the man you elect votes with his party, not with his own conscience. Now, if you elect enough moderate, old-fashioned Republicans can they derail this extremist Christian right agenda?

Oh, I did that too and I was told I didn't qualify but I had no trouble getting banded at the Toronto Lap Band Centre. The thing is that I am overweight and was lookin' at getting fatter and fatter as I got older if I didn't get banded. The TLBC recognized this.

:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: LMAO!

Yes, you have got it right. It shouldn't matter when step relatives marry each other. It boils down to an issue of the gene pool. The prohibition, which appears in almost all cultures, against members of the nuclear family intermarrying has to do with genetic issues and inbreeding. It is simply much less healthy. Family weaknesses are carried on instead of being bred out. In some cultures, however, close members of royal or noble families did marry and breed with each other.

They may or may not do these things but no hypocrisy will be involved.

Seems to me like Betsyjane has got it, eh. (By the way, congrats on your upcoming band surgery.)

Well, that's rude of him!

Yep, it is a puzzle as to why some kids turn out okay and some don't. I was a rebellious kid and my parents were rebellious when they were young. In my father's case this saved his life. His family was Jewish - he himself never believed in any religion - and he ran away from his family and from Poland. After many adventures and hardships he washed up in England. My very rebellious brother ended up becoming a doctor but this was only after he had married and had three children. Earlier on he had dropped out of university a couple of times and was working as a hired hand for a chicken farmer. One of his kids has gone back to university as a single mum. She is 30 years old. The other two kids went through school and university the normal way. They have careers and are married. That is the story of my family for what it is worth. As you can see, there has been bumps in the road. Of course it doesn't help that we are all raging depressives. But I suspect that many folks behave badly and make mistakes along the path. This always causes grief to their parents at the time. Nevertheless, for many of us it seems to be part of growing up; we figure we want to experience things for ourselves. There will come a day, Cloe, when you and your daughter find yourselves laughing together about the drunken idiot in her car in the parking lot. She will say something along the lines of "ugh, I can't believe I was that dumb!"

How would you stage a protest?

In Canada the age of general sexual consent is 16, I believe, although the law will leave children of 14 and 15 alone if they are sexually active with people who are close to their own age: this leaves predatory adults out of the sexual equation for these individuals. The minimum age for drinking in this province is 19 and the minimum age to vote is 18. The minimum age to drive a car is 16 but for the first 2 years after one has received one's license one must only drive when there is a fully licensed driver in the car. This change is a relatively recent one. I don't know what the laws are regarding minimum age and tats and piercings. I have known a lot of mothers whose daughters started acting up when they became teenagers. Some of these kids went on to have children. Others of them straightened out and went on to graduate from university. The key seems to be to make sure that the girls are using birth control and will continue to use it. Two mums that I know both hauled their 14 year old girls off for abortions. One girl is now in university studying dentistry. She has won plenty of academic prizes, bursaries and medals. The other girl went off, got herself pregnant a second time, hid this from her mother until it was too late, and had the child when she was fifteen. The last I heard of her was that she dumped her boyfriend, is raising the kid with assistance from the government and is a good mother to the child. It is interesting to note that both kids were doing well academically and that both came from single parent homes. I myself was a rowdy teenager. I got myself expelled from boarding school for smoking drugs way back when that was a real scandal. The nuns who booted me out prayed for me. I continued to be rowdy but managed to get through university. Now I am old and affluent enough to take early retirement but I am still not particularly well-behaved. I would have been a lousy parent, that's for sure! When I hear stories of young women behaving badly, I never know what to think or say. It does seem to be a phase and it is hell for the parents. As to how to treat these kids and where they will end up, well, this probably the most difficult business that will get tossed in your direction as a parent. I do, however, think that kids need hands-on parenting.

What it says to me is that the United Nations is a toothless institution, sadly much as was The League of Nations.

The Province of Ontario covers drugs for people on welfare, disability pensions and all folks over 65. Because they buy drugs in bulk they can negotiate cheaper prices with the pharmaceutical companies and naturally generic drugs are automatically substituted whenever possible. My company drug plan also stipulates that generic drugs are to be substituted when available. Unfortunately, Canada does not have universal drug care. *sigh* I am under the impression that many other countries with universal health care do have both drugs and dental care as part of the package.

:clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: Far out!!!!